Second stage of my trip in this country, Hoi An enchanted me and reconciled me with Vietnam after the disappointment of Ho Chi Minh City. I love this city and I will come back with pleasure. There are however some negative points and I will start with that to finish on the positive:
The beaches
The promise
Having read in various places that there were great beaches here, and in particular Ha My beach, presented by the website authentikvietnam.com as one of the most beautiful in Asia, I confess that I was a little disappointed. Here is what the site says: “A strip of extremely white and clean sand stretching as far as the eye can see is bordered on one side by green filaos and coconut trees, and on the other side, turquoise waters. The resort is remarkable for its gentle slopes with secret corners, surrounded by such a wild setting where you will be at peace to enjoy your stay.”
The reality
Ha My beach is indeed a fine white sand beach, but it is far from clean. Like many beaches around the world, there is a lot of trash from the sea.
This may be explained by the storm there was the week before I arrived. Perhaps this storm also explains why the turquoise waters are not there? The water is dark grey or brown as you like, it’s not transparent at all, and you can’t see anything of the sea bed there. It is not unpleasant to swim there; of course the water is warm, you can walk relatively far and there are small waves that provide a nice thalasso. However, it is better to look at the sea side, because if you look inland the idyllic image takes a good blow.
See the photos below 
It’s possible that I didn’t come at the right season, and that there are times of the year when you can find this magnificent water sold in the guidebooks.
Although I am not very connected to organized activities, I thought I would find this authenticity that I did not have on this beach by going on a day trip to the Cham Islands.
We left by speedboat and spent 45 minutes snorkelling to admire the fishes and the sea bed, then we had a typical meal of sea products in a beach restaurant, a short stop in a fishermen village before coming back to Hoi An.
The islands are very beautiful, the white sand beach, coconut trees, the beautiful color of the water, everything is there for the charm to work 
Unfortunately there again is the disappointment. The snorkelling takes place in a place where the water is very far from being transparent, there is very little underwater fauna, in the end I would see a few starfish some beautiful corals, and very few of those multicolored fish that we see on all the pictures in the guidebooks. The typical meal provides the same disappointment, shared by my tablemates, two very nice Germans 
But then why am I a fan of Hoi An?
The city
This ancient fishing village is beautiful, with houses that are centuries old and built on both sides of the river, and have very interesting architecture. They are distributed around small streets and the two sides of the river are connected by several bridges.
The whole city is a market, you can buy just about anything you want, including beautiful custom-made clothes, leather goods that seem to be of very good quality, of course quite a lot of counterfeit of different products, the classic Dior bag or other big French brand, but also and it’s more amazing you can find in abundance stores offering products of the brand North Face, which although being products, s of counterfeit obviously seem to be of excellent quality.
This is how you can buy down jackets and mountain jackets in a country where it is over 30 degrees all the time. 
There is also an abundance of shoes, obviously souvenirs, and you can eat at various places between massage parlors.
I stayed three days in Hoi An, and ate well everywhere 
The main characteristic of this city is that it is very lively in the evening since on both sides of the river it is a huge night market illuminated by the countless lanterns while on the river walk many boats also illuminated by the same lanterns.
It is a beautiful sight, I went back three days in a row.
It’s a very romantic and pleasant place which of course welcomes many European tourists but also many Vietnamese who come from the surrounding cities or from
